Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Kasia Sings the Blues

(Again, apologies to Googlers looking for that Polish singer....)

Kasia has started to sing original compositions about her life -- commentary on events as they unfold. For example, on the way to day care in the morning, we often get this:

Oh, I don't wanna go to school,
Don't wanna go to school
Don't wanna go to school,
Oh, don't wanna go to school today.

The thing is, it comes across as the Blues, not as whinning or complaining, or as an actual request not to go to school. (She actually seems okay with day care when she gets there and enjoys being with her friends.) She just sings her stream of consciousness, and it often has this rythmic repetition and slight melancoly, as if she's been listening and preforming the Blues for years. But once out of her car seat, it's all smiles and and three year-old giggles.

What's fascinating to me is that Kasia's Blues style is developing in contrast to Tigana's more musical theater and country tendencies -- perhaps reminiscent of Carrie Underwood. I'm sure that the emergence of Kasia's self-compositions reflects Tigana's current preoccupation with singing and songwriting (Disney-style "why can't we all just love each other" compositions) as Tigana starts voice lessons...but how in the world did Kasia come up with the Blues as her own thing? We are not particular fans of the Blues, never play it on the radio or CDs... and lord knows neither Mary nor I sing about the house -- so how does a three year old reinvent such a distinct genre?

Though come to that, who allowed Tigana to hear country? I figured that must have been the inevitable fallout of living in Southern Alberta, even though Country is banned from our house. It is the one musical form I cannot stand. I'd much rather listen to traditional Chinese Opera than Country. Hell, I'd rather listen to Klingon Opera than Country. But living in Lethbridge, I knew that Tigana would be exposed, and now that she has taken to it, what can I say? I'm not about to tell her she can't sing that way. I'll just bite my tongue and attend her Country concerts, if it comes to that.

(Or is it just that Country singers all sound like 8 year olds, never having outgrown that annoying twang thing that kids get at this age?)

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